Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett

This is the another contemporary romance novel by Jenn Bennett. You might have read her other novels, Alex, Approximately, Starry Eyes, and The Anatomical Shape of a Heart. After an awkward first encounter, this book follows the main characters, Birdie and Daniel, who are forced to work together in a Seattle hotel where a famous author leads a mysterious and secluded life.

To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell…discovering that the most confounding mystery of all may be her growing feelings for the elusive riddle that is Daniel

I had read Jenn Bennett’s previous books, and absolutely loved them. When I found out that she was coming out with this one, I automatically had to read it. I didn’t even have to read the synopsis to know that I would probably really enjoy the book. And enjoy it I did! More so probably.

The main thing I enjoyed about this book was the unique characters and also the fact that the author incorporates a chronic disorder, such as narcolepsy. However, there are trigger warnings for the death of a parent, health problems (narcolepsy & episodes related to prior), suicide attempts, depression, abandonment by a parent, loss of pregnancy, and grieving.

The characters were so quirky, and I loved that about them. Nothing about them felt like stock characters; each one had their own personality and unique mannerism about them. I loved how different Birdie is – just her name alone is different. But she loves detective novels. She loves mysteries in general, and also solving them, which is what takes place during a majority of this book. Her and Daniel are trying to solve the mystery of the famous author who kept checking into the hotel Daniel and Birdie works at.

The main mystery that the two characters were trying to solve was part of the reason I was on the edge of my seat while I was reading. It didn’t quite feel like a contemporary novel, at least not in totality. It also felt like a mystery novel inside a contemporary, which is an aspect of this book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

My favorite aspect, however, had to be the romance between Birdie and Daniel. It’s one that isn’t always shown in YA novels. In most YA novels, there isn’t much mention of sex, but Bennett handled that topic really well and realistically in this book. It’s something that would happen in real life, and it’s something that should be discussed in these books, since it’s something that is coming up during the teenage years, especially the mention of safe sex. The first encounter between the main characters is them meeting in the Moonlight diner, where one thing led to another, and they wound up in the back seat of Daniel’s car. Birdie didn’t think she would see him again, but when she found out she’d be working with him at the hotel, she kind of freaked out. She didn’t think that she’d wind up actually falling for him at the end.

Overall, this is a great book for anyone who loved Jenn Bennett’s previous books, or YA contemporary books in general. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who also enjoyed Morgan Matson, Becky Albertalli, and Sandhya Menon. It’s definitely worth the read.

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